Monday, September 26, 2011

you visit a museum and find yourself saying "I remember that, " or "we had one of those". This happened to me over the weekend when we visited MOTAT ( Museum of Transport and Technology) over the weekend.

The first car I ever owned was one of these, Morris Minor or " Morrie Minor", mine was a 1952 model..

Mr. Four Square, this was THE corner store, the good old Four Square Store, we got our groceries at our local store before we had supermarkets. The owner of our Four Square Store was Mr. Barton, a lovely man...

What a memory, the wringer washing machine, took all day to do the washing....

New Zealand icon, Crown Lynn pottery manufacutred all sorts of dinner plates, the design above is exactly what my Dad had, in fact I think one of my girls has the little milk jug from this set...

Bedford Truck, my dad had a truck like this , he worked building the motorway (freeway) in Auckland in the 1960's.

Still around now, Choysa Tea, another Kiwi icon, you would collect the coupons in the packet and get a cash discount on your next packet of tea....

Kiwi nugget, every Sunday night we would polish our school shoes using Kiwi polish, under Dad's watchful eye. Before we polished them to a shine we would spit on them and then polish with a soft cloth. A throw back from the army days when the soldiers used "Spit and Polish" to shine their boots.

This old bus is exactly like the bus I used to get to and from work when I was just sixteen years old.

Sunday, September 25, 2011

My shadow shots this week were taken while on holiday in Salt Lake City. My daughter, Evette, took me on a photowalk to the Great Salt Lake. The particular place that we went to is a favourite place for photographers to use, it is what I would call "Rural Grunge" with an old rusted railway carriage that has been used as a canvas for graffiti artists. I captured these shadows while there..

Go over to Tracy at Hey Harriet to see other shadow chasers from around the world.....

Thursday, September 22, 2011

The Rugby World Cup is all about the people, not only the members of the competing teams, but more importantly the supporters who have travelled half way around the world to support their team. Last weekend Auckland held a Heritage weekend where we shared our heritage with the hundreds of tourists who flocked down to The Cloud. Together with people dressed in different costumes, local pacific island cultural groups performed. Auckland has the largest Polynesian population in the world , so it was good to see such a variety of performers.

Representing the crossing of cultures, Maori traditional cloaks and European clothing

These girls were so funny measuring their costumes to make sure they were not showing too much flesh

Representing the ships that sailed from England to discover New Zealand

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

At the moment the whole of Auckland, and for that matter the whole of New Zealand is BUZZING!! with the atmosphere of the Rugby World Cup. Rugby is the national game of New Zealand and our team the All Blacks ( named because of their all black uniforms) is going to win this one. Twenty countries are involved in the cup from both the Northern Hemisphere and the Southern Hemisphere. Go here and check out the website to see how the teams are going.

In downtown Auckland the waterfront has been turned into what is being called "party central" a place where tourists and New Zealanders alike get together to watch games and to enjoy good old "Kiwi" hospitality.

Last weekend we went downtown to experience what is happening at party central. There has been major building done to make the area look world class. The main building is called "the cloud" and it is in the shape of the Long White Cloud which is what the English translation of Aotearoa which is what the Maori called New Zealand when they first landed here. Maori still call New Zealand Aotearoa.

The Cloud taken from the other side of the waterfront....

Entry into The Cloud

When you enter this Rugby Ball you are able to be involved in interactive games, a real hit with the children

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Monday, September 12, 2011

Last Thursday way my last night in Salt Lake City, I made the journey home to New Zealand on Friday afternoon, arriving home early Sunday morning.

So, what do you do on the last night of your holiday? Have a guess? Bet you won't guess?

Go to dinner with family? Yea, did that !
Go to a movie? Nah, did that the night before!
Go home and finish packing? Heck no, what a waste of time that would be.

I did something that I would never in a million years thought I would get to do. I got to be an observer in the car of one of Salt Lake City's police officers. Evette's friend has been with the police for about 13years and he invited Evette and I to ride with him on what was supposed to be a pretty dull, routine night of checking for DUI's. Well, dull it certainly was not. The shift started at 9pm and went until 2am, and I admit that I was not expecting to be out for the whole time.

About 20minutes into the shift we get a call on the radio to say that there was a traffic accident not far from where we were. Well, it was all on, we took off at a VERY high speed and were the first on the scene. When we arrived we were told to stay in the car until told otherwise, obviously for safety reasons. The driver of the car had taken off, and a member of the public indicated who he was and he was immediately arrested. By this time another six police cars had arrived, and one of the officers did a "pat down" of the driver of the car, and on checking the pockets discovered a gun magazine fully loaded. Meanwhile, a retired police officer had advised our friend that the driver had thrown a bag over a nearby fence, on retrieving it and checking the inside there were three fully loaded guns, a revolver, and two Glock's that had been modified to semi-automatics.

By this time Evette and I were out of the car, and standing looking at the guns in total disbelief. I could not get over the guns, I have never seen anything like it. The whole thing was like something out of a TV show, there were police everywhere, and because the driver was out on probation he was in BIG trouble for having all the guns. And it didn't end there, the forensic team arrived to photograph and tag the guns.

Next stop was the jail to get a blood sample for testing for alcohol and/or drugs and an interview with some FBI officers. And then off the prison...

Oh, and did I mention the dog? Yes, there was a dog going over the car checking for drugs. All in all it took up 3hours of the shift. It was a truly amazing experience, and a great adventure.

And to all those on Facebook who saw the pictures of me getting arrested, ( a little gag put on by Evette and friend) the above is what really happened.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Emma now attends the Gerald L Wright Elementary School and last night was the first of many events they hold to get the kids together, organised by the PTA. The idea being to bring along your skates, rollerblades, scooters and have a fun time cruising to music and winning spot prizes. Emma was not that keen on being amongst all the older children, but had a go at going around the skating area. She enjoyed her Snowcone, but the favourite was the "Bubble Machine" it was hilarious to watch.